Babar Azam ‘looking forward’ to the England series

Pakistan clinched a narrow 2-1 series triumph with a six-wicket triumph over Ireland on Tuesday and now travel to England for a four-match series against the reigning T20 World Cup champions ahead of the tournament in the USA and West Indies.

Babar Azam-led Pakistan will play four-match series against defending champions England from May 22-30. The series will be an important one for Pakistan and England ahead of the T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies.

Pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi was in excellent touch during the Ireland series, with the left-armer collecting figures of 3-14 in the final match to finish as the leading wicket-taker across the series with seven scalps at an average of 12.71.

But the form of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam in particular will please Pakistan ahead of the T20 World Cup, with the skipper's innings of 75 coming from just 42 deliveries and featuring a joint career-best five sixes and an excellent strike-rate of 178.57.

Babar smashed four sixes from one Ben White over to put Pakistan in the ascendancy, combining with Mohammad Rizwan for a partnership of 139 for the second wicket.

"We had good communication in the middle because we have played a lot of cricket together; we were trying to play on our strengths and the aim was to match with the run rate," Babar noted.

"Lots of positives for us to take and we were able to execute our plans.

"We have a big tournament coming up and this is good practice; we are now looking forward to the England series."

Shaheen paid tribute to the efforts of Babar and Rizwan and believes the series in Ireland has his team primed to perform well at the T20 World Cup

"For us, before the World Cup, it's important to have these games to ready ourselves and there are a few areas to improve," Afridi said.

"They're both world-class players (Babar and Rizwan); they know how to play their role and they have done really well on this pitch."

Series leading wicket-takers

PLAYER                                 TEAM           WICKETS TAKEN
Shaheen Afridi                        Pakistan           7
Abbas Afridi                            Pakistan           6
Mark Adair                              Ireland              5
Colin Young                            Ireland              3
Imad Wasim                           Pakistan            2
Naseem Shah                        Pakistan             2
Mohammad Amir                    Pakistan            2

Series leading run-scorers
PLAYER                                  TEAM             RUNS SCORED
Babar Azam                             Pakistan    132
Mohammad Rizwan                 Pakistan    132
Andy Balbirnie                         Ireland    128
Lorcan Tucker                         Ireland    128
Fakhar Zaman                        Pakistan    98